Al Young of Starve in Heaven just emailed me asking for some tips on taking his blog to the next level, specifically in terms of writing style and building an audience. Here’s what I wrote back off the top of my head:
- Write a lot
- Link to people you write about.
- Read other blogs, use their posts as a basis to write your own posts (taking the subjects in interesting new directions of course) and link to them.
- Become a resource for your readers in a niche of your own making. Basically whatever you’re interested in.
- Write a lot more.
- Be patient. It takes months to build up a good readership, if not years.
- Experiment with your writing. Don’t feel the need to find a formula and stick to it. Get creative.
- Relax. Be chatty. Don’t write articles, write conversations. Treat the blog as your living room.
- Keep writing more and more.
Hope that’s of some use.
Great post. Short and to the point and refreshingly different from the conventional advice from the business bloggers.
I particularly like #7: ‘Experiment with your writing. Don’t feel the need to find a formula and stick to it. Get creative.’
I hate posts that say ‘Blog in the same style with a regular frequency in your niche subject’.
To me blogging is completely the opposite – blog about who/what you want, whenever you want.
Useful post for a newbie blogger such as me.
Lots of images one day, a thought or useful link another day, thats my angle.
I like the idea of treating my blog like an online media diary also aimed at helping like minded people.